


Memory loss and that blonde guy

by nothing_much



Series: The blonde guy [1]
Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: Accident, Hospital, M/M, Original Characters mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 21:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17989163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothing_much/pseuds/nothing_much
Summary: His head was pounding. He felt hot, like he had a fever or something. His eyes hurt when he tried to open them. The light was way to bright. He looked around. He seemed to be in a hospital bed. There was a blonde man sitting in a chair in the room. With how his head hurt, he didn’t bother to wonder about it. He closed his eyes again, but not before the man in the chair had noticed him being awake. He watched him raise himself out of the chair before his eyes were totally shut.





	Memory loss and that blonde guy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on my mini-laptop, on a train. We don't really agree with each other, my little friend and I, which may show in the text. I've gone through it checking for errors (words that's missing, or spelling errors (or just weird words in the middle of a text, or letters that somehow got lost)), and I hope that it's readable. 
> 
> I've been spending a couple of night's and mornings in a hotel room, to early to get up, or sleep, wanting to write, the hotel I stayed at had complimentary WIFI, and it sucked really really bad. They also put me on the top floor, and my phone reception was even worse, abroad, and well, off. So in the end I was kind of desperate, and when the WIFI on the train is better than the one in the hotel, you can imagine.

His head was pounding. He felt hot, like he had a fever or something. His eyes hurt when he tried to open them. The light was way to bright. He looked around. He seemed to be in a hospital bed. There was a blonde man sitting in a chair in the room. With how his head hurt, he didn’t bother to wonder about it. He closed his eyes again, but not before the man in the chair had noticed him being awake. He watched him raise himself out of the chair before his eyes were totally shut.

He heard him approach. The noises seemed to be louder than usual. He could feel the man lean in over him. He opened his eyes, and saw that the man’s face was really close. He flinched a little, and the man looked kind of frantic, but drew back with a concerned look in his face. He also pressed the call button, and went back towards the door. A nurse looked through it soon enough. The man told her in kind of an urgent voice that he was awake, and demanded, there was no better word for it, that she’d hurry up to get a doctor. 

A doctor soon entered the room with the nurse. Now he’d gotten kind of used to the pounding in his head, he wondered who the blonde man was, and why his mum or Paddy wasn’t there. The doctor took out a small lamp, and shone the light straight into his eyes, while telling him he had been in an accident. With a car. He seemed to be suffering from a concussion. The doctor continued with a couple of questions, and yes, he knew his name:

“Aaron” he said

“Aaron” the doctor repeated, “do you know how old you are?” he continued the questions.

“16” Aaron told the doctor who nodded. The blonde man in the corner coughed. Aaron looked at him. His concerned look was still on, less frantic though, and he looked straight at Aaron. It felt weird. He was probably the man who’d run him over with his car. That was probably why he was here. And why he seemed so worried. 

“Aaron” the doctor tried to get his attention back. “Do you know what day it is?” he asked when Aaron’s eyes was on him again. 

“Tuesday” Aaron answered. With the doctor, the nurse and the man in the corner’s eyes on him he realised something was wrong. 

“Is it not Tuesday” he wondered. The last thing he remembered was going for the bus, to get home from school. He was supposed to meet up wit Vic at the bus station. He hoped that she hadn’t been waiting around for him. 

They all looked at him with concern. There was a noise outside the door, and there was a young woman entering. She looked like an older version of Vic. She sounded like Vic too. The likeness was almost scary. She went up to the man in the chair, and stood beside him looking at him. He felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. Like there was something he should know. The doctor seemed to be finished with his examination, and turned to the man and the woman. 

“He seems to be doing fine, except for the memory loss, which probably is only temporary, and he will be back to his normal self soon. He needs rest and we’ll keep him here until the concussion is gone, should be out by tomorrow or the day after” the doctor told them. 

Aaron frowned. Memory loss. What was this. He didn’t have the time to think about it as his mum suddenly crashed through the door, looked expectantly at the doctor, who promptly left, and then to the man in the corner.

“What’s going on? What happened? What did the doctor say?” her questions spilled out faster than Aaron could answer them. And anyway. They weren’t aimed at him. He closed his eyes again and let the stranger answer for him.

“Calm down Chas” the blonde stranger said, and Aaron opened his eyes. Maybe it was a new boyfriend of his mums. He seemed to know her at least. Wasn’t she still with that ass Carl? Maybe that’s what the doctor meant by memory loss. He may have lost a couple of days, or weeks?

“Robert, what happened” she said, and seemed to be a little calmer. Aaron listened, he wanted to know too. The man seemed to be in pain, but he was telling them all what happened. 

“We were walking down the street discussing, well you know, and all of a sudden a car came out of nowhere, Aaron jumped out of the way, but fell and hit his head on the curb” the blonde explained. And well that explained a few things. The blonde seemed to know him, and well, the bump on his head, and the headache. 

“He thinks he’s 16 and that he was on his way home from school” the blonde man, Robert, continued. That got Aaron’s attention. The explanation showed, that there was something wrong, with that assumption. He moaned, which got his mum’s attention. 

“What’s wrong love?” she asked him. The woman who looked like Vic took a step forward. She whispered something to his mum, he could hear it “I don’t think he recognises neither me nor Robert” she’d told her. She was right.

His mum turned her attention to him again, she looked really concerned now. 

“Love” she said. “Do you know who I am?” he nodded. 

“Yeah, mum” I know who you are. “I don’t know those people though” he said, and nodded his head towards the strangers. His mum turned to them.

“Oh” she said.

The blonde man groaned and looked really hurt, but the woman giggled. 

“Liv is on her way in” his mum said. Aaron tenced. He did not want to see his father, or Sandra and Liv. Why on earth had the hospital, it must be them, contacted his father. he cringed.

The blonde man who still sat in the chair in the corner bent forward, and with a soothing voice he said “Your dad’s not coming” like he knew what Aaron was feeling and why. It made him even more confused. Something was really wrong here. Memory loss. How much had he lost? He looked at the woman who looked like Vic again. Maybe it was Vic. He decided to try it out.

“Vic… Victoria?” he said. When she answered, he closed his eyes in horror. He was getting really tired from all this. Maybe he should sleep?

He opened his eyes again as a teenager tumbled in. 

“Aaron?” she said, and looked relieved. Aaron wondered who she was. She didn’t look as old as Vic did, more the age he’d expected Vic to be. He closed his eyes again. Too many people. He knew something was wrong.

“How long was I out” he asked the room in general.

“A couple of hours” the blonde man answered. “But you seem to have lost about 10 years or so” he continued. Aaron opened his eyes, lifted his head, and looked straight at him. 

“10 years!?” he asked. 

Chas took charge then. She shooed the other three out the door and followed them. She winked at Aaron, and told him they’d only be a minute. Outside the door, she started to talk in a hushed voice. Aaron still heard her.

“Ok, so he thinks he’s sixteen, then he hasn’t come out yet. Maybe he hasn’t even started thinking about it, he was still trying to get into Vic’s pants wasn’t he?” she said, and he could hear the blonde man grunt, and the young girl who arrived last giggle. Vic answered his mum with a positive sound. 

“So we make it easy on him, do not mention the wedding, the engagement or anything like that” there was a moan, as she said that. He couldn’t make out from whom, but still. Engagement, the blonde was her fiancé, he was right, his mum was with blondie, and they were getting married. Like that Carl hadn’t been bad enough. Well, he could still stay with Paddy he supposed. His mum had always prefered boyfriends to him. Suddenly he realised what blondie had said. 10 years, he must’ve been kidding. He couldn’t have lost 10 years. That would make him 26. That teenager who had stumbled in, could that be? No? It couldn’t have been Liv?

This was too much. He closed his eyes with a pained noise slipping out of his lips, and fell asleep almost immediately. 

When he opened his eyes again, for a moment he thought he was alone in the room, because the chair was empty. But then he realised that someone was standing by his head. He turned and looked up at the blonde man standing there. He wondered why he was still here. Wasn’t he supposed to leave with his mum? He felt a little bit awkward.  
He was silent for a moment and looked around the room.

“Where is everyone?” he asked

“Vic went home, and your mum and sister went to grab something to eat” the blonde man answered. Aaron couldn’t remember his name. but he nodded.

“So, you got guard duty?” he asked. The blonde smirked. Aaron wondered why.

“Something like that” he answered and his hand reached out like he wanted to touch Aaron, who flinched a little, and then he kind of just scratched his face instead. Aaron wondered what that was about. 

“So,” he decided to ask his questions, blondie could answer things for him “you’re the fiancé?” he asked. Better get this over with. If he was Chas boyfriend or rather fiancé it was better to know. 

A smile spread on blondie’s face he looked relieved. “You remember” he asked, and reached out like for Aaron’s hand. 

“No,” Aaron said, honestly, and blondies hand fell again, “I heard you through the door,” he clarified, he still had to ask: ”you’re engaged to my mum” it was a statement more than a question. 

The answer came with a cringe, and a short no. He looked at the blonde man with curious eyes. Who was the fiancé and who was getting married. It was a mystery he didn’t really want to get into, he decided to continue with his questions instead.

“So, who are you exactly?” he settled on. The blonde cringed again but opened his mouth, just as his mother entered the room, together with the teen, he realised must be Liv. He wondered what she was doing here without her mother or … well alone. Maybe they had rekindled and she had been visiting. Maybe she’d come for the mysterious wedding. 

“I’m Robert” the blonde interrupted his thoughts. He was looking down on Aaron with an expectant glint in his eyes. It died as Aaron didn’t react at all. 

“I’m Liv” the teen offered “your sister” she continued. Aaron smiled. His mum took a sandwich and a cup of coffee out of a bag and handed to the blonde man, Robert. He still wondered what he was doing in there. They’d been together when the accident occured, maybe his conscience was making him stay. Maybe they were friends, though he couldn’t remember him, and he didn’t seem like someone he’d become friends with. Maybe he’d changed.

“You know you all don’t have to be here” he offered, looking pointedly at blondie, hoping he would leave. Instead his mum looked at him, and nodded. 

“Come on Liv,” she said “let’s leave them”

Aaron had not counted on that outcome. He looked at his mum with a shocked expression on his face. 

“It’s ok, love” his mum said. “We’ll be back tomorrow” and she shooed Liv out, and they left Aaron with Robert and an awkward silence. Since Robert must have realised that it was him Aaron was trying to get rid of, not his family. 

“I’ll leave you to it” the blonde said, and sat back in the chair.

Aaron couldn’t really hold back his curiosity any longer. He looked the blonde stranger up and down, as he sat in the chair. 

“Who are you? Really?” he asked. It made Robert look at him. 

“All you need to know right now, is that I’m Robert, and I’ll be here for you. Tell me if you need anything, and I’ll get it” he said, and took a sip of his coffee, and a bite out of his sandwich. The nurse came into the room with a tray of food for Aaron. He looked at it with disgust. It didn’t look great, or even good. But he was hungry.

As he ate, something else his mother had said made it into his head. He looked over at Robert. What if? No, nope. NO. He wasn’t that way. Of that he was sure. He must have misheard, or misunderstood. Definitely. 

He finished his meal, and decided to go to sleep. His head was killing him. he leant back and closed his eyes, and fell into a restless sleep this time, not as exhausted as before. He was tossing and turning, head pounding with every move. He tried to be still, but couldn’t seem to manage. Not until a hand touched his side, and stayed there. He felt a comfort rush over him, he didn’t think about it and slipped into a deep, calm sleep. The warm hand staying comfortable on his hip.

He was woken up by a nightmare. Screaming. There was a soft voice speaking to him, calming him down. Saying all the right things. Stroking his forehead. It wasn’t Paddy or his mum. He screamed again, this time because he didn’t recognise the voice, and it seemed like it was an extension of the nightmare. Of cause he was going to have bad dreams, he’d been thinking of his... father, hadn’t he. He heard someone rushing towards the door. There was a light as the door opened, and a worried nurse stood in the entrance. 

“Is there anything wrong” she asked in a soft voice.

“It’s only a nightmare,” the blonde’s voice spoke above him. He realised that he was still stroking his face, and seemed to know exactly how to speak to keep Aaron calm. Why was he still here, and how did he know. He was fed up with not knowing. When the nurse left he sat up in the bed. His head hurt a little less than earlier. He didn’t feel like he had a fever anymore either.

“Who are you? And what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Why isn’t my mum, Paddy or Vic here? Why you?” The questions kept coming, and Aaron thought of lots more, but he decided to wait for an answer. 

“I’m Robert” the blonde said again

“I know that” Aaron answered, “but who’s Robert?” he asked again.

“I don’t know if I should answer that” Robert said with a shrug. 

“I want to know, and I want to know now” Aaron stubbornly told him. 

“Ok,” the Robert bloke said, “Ok” he said again before he took a deep breath. “I never thought I’d see this day” he muttered to himself.

“I’m your boyfriend” he said and put his hand on Aaron’s shoulder, as it would make things clearer for Aaron. He clearly lied. Aaron wasn’t bent that way. He was straight. He’d even had a girlfriend. Well. He’d had Vic, and they’d had sex. He remembered that at least. So, he scoffed at Robert. He’d probably had lots of girlfriends since too. 

“Yeah, right” he said, and shook off Robert’s hand. “Boyfriends, likely story. Are you with my mum?” he asked again. 

There was a deep sigh from Robert. He seemed kind of amused, at the same time as he seemed very annoyed. 

“This must be how it felt for you, every time I said I was straight” he muttered, and took a deep breath. 

“It’s Ok, Aaron, you’re out, and we don’t have to talk about it” Robert said, and moved to go back to the chair. As he did, Aaron felt a little twinge of guilt. But he didn’t say anything. He remembered again, his mum saying he didn’t remember being out. Maybe he was. But still. Wouldn’t he remember a boyfriend? He looked at Robert feeling suspicious. 

“What do you mean you’re straight? Are you, or not? Am I?” he just had to ask. Robert smiled at him in response.

“Well, we both had some difficulties before we got settled” he told Aaron. “Your mum can tell you better about your struggles with your sexuality, I can tell you about other struggles, but I don’t think it’s either the time or the place. We found each other on the other side of them. It took it’s time, but we are, well before this we were, in a good place.” Robert explained. It didn’t answer all of Aaron’s questions, and it didn’t explain anything for real. But he was too tired to ask anything else. There were too many questions, and he didn’t even know where to start. At all. 

He laid back in the bed again, and tried to gather his mind and thoughts. He was Bi? Gay? With this man? Robert? How on earth had that happened? He knew he’d never been in love with Vic, or anyone, but anyway. He felt uncomfortably comfortable with this man. It was an odd feeling. He didn’t really know how to act now. 

“I don’t know what to do with this” he told Robert. It’s just weird. He saw Robert cringe again. “I’m sorry” he continued. He felt guilty, but he couldn’t pretend. “I’m not gay” he told Robert honestly. 

Robert started laughing. “I promise, I’m not laughing at you” he swore to Aaron. Who looked at him with a weird feeling in his stomach. The man looked hurt, even when he laughed.

Well he didn’t feel guilty anymore. Not guilty at all. The man laughed him in the face. Maybe he should be worried, maybe this Robert could be dangerous. He didn’t think his mum would leave him with someone dangerous. But, hey, it’d been ten years, and he didn’t really know who she was now, did he? She hadn’t bothered with him back in the day’s he did remember. He’d been living with Paddy since then for all he knew. She could be happily married to that idiot Carl, not giving a damn about him. He wondered why Paddy hadn’t come to visit. And he wondered where home was, he was to be going there tomorrow. He gave the still laughing blonde a suspicious look. 

“Where is home?” he asked which stopped the man laughing. He looked incredulously at him instead now. 

“Home is in Mill cottage” Robert told him, and Aaron cursed in his head. His mum had married Carl then. He scoffed. 

“So, I’m 26 and still live with my mother and her husband then?” 

The mad blonde started laughing again. Just typical. He’s stuck in a hospital room, with a mad man, who’s trying to fill his head with mad stories. He wished his mum or Vic had stayed instead. His thoughts were interrupted by the blonde. He looked concerned again. 

“Are you ok,” he asked. Aaron shook his head. 

“No, I’m not ok, I’m here in a dark room, with someone I don’t know, who keep telling me that I have a boyfriend when I’m not even gay” he knew he sounded as frustrated as he felt. The blonde man smiled sadly at him. He could see the hurt in his eyes. Guilt rose within him again. He couldn’t be telling the truth? Could he? 

“You don’t live with your mum, she lives at the pub” the... Robert, told him. “We live at Mill cottage, with Liv and Seb. “You and me” he clarified. 

Well that was disturbing. He closed his eyes again. This was beyond embarrassing. Obviously one of them was crazy, and now he started to suspect that he was in some kind of concussion induced hallucination, or nightmare. This wasn’t real. He smiled brightly and decided to play along.

“So, we live together, you and I, I’m straight, and we live in Mill cottage with two other persons, am I right?” he asked, and the blonde man nodded. He leant forward, and said “Yeah right” with a smirk. “You better not be here when I wake up” he told the other man who he was now convinced was pulling his leg. The man looked kind of sad, and reached for his pocket, he took out a slim metallic thing and punched his fingers at it. Suddenly Aaron could hear ringing. His mother answered. 

“What?” she sounded panicked. Robert calmed her down with a couple of lines before he got to the point, Aaron listening to everything said.

“Aaron knows, and he doesn’t believe me. He wants me gone. Could one of you come over here, and stay with him. I don’t want him to be here alone” Robert told his mum in a defeated voice. His mum, who started yelling. At him.

“Am I on speaker?” she demanded, and continued “Aaron Dingle” what was that, he was called Livesy? “You idiot! Now be nice to Robert or I’ll come over and slap you silly!” 

Did his mother just threaten to beat him?

“Rude” he said. His mum started screaming once again. 

“Don’t you make me come there” she told him and then Robert once again fingered on the screen, and the call was ended.

He looked at Robert and stubbornly held on to what he had left. 

“I’m not gay” he said. 

“Of course you’re not” Robert agreed with him, “Of course not” he agreed, with a sad, defeated look in his face.

Aaron calmed down a little, and once again, he felt how tired he was. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again. And again he felt restless and uncomfortable. He turned and tried to sleep another way, and then turned again, and again. He heard the chair move, and felt a hand on his hip. Once again comfort surrounded him and he fell asleep.  
*  
He woke up with a slight headache. The sun was shining, and Rob was sitting in a chair beside him. Sleeping with his head resting on Aaron’s bed. He reached out his hand and stroked the blonde hair. It felt good under his fingers. He wondered how long he’d been sleeping. Robert woke up with Aaron’s hand in his hair. He smiled and looked up at him.

“Morning Rob” he said with a smile. “What happened? Who are with the kids?”

“Is that you Aaron?” Robert asked, to which Aaron nodded. 

“Are you straight Aaron” Robert asked again.

“I better not be,” Aaron answered “We’ve got a wedding to plan” he continued to smile. 

The smile he got in return from Robert was relieved, gorgeous and very, very happy.


End file.
